No, my opinions as expressed in this blog are not those of my employer. They're mine alone. That's why they're called "my opinions." Helloooo.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Of course, everyone keeps asking me how much I decided to pay for In Rainbows. They ask me since, well, I love Radiohead enough that, from the perspective of most of my friends, I appear to be the biggest Radiohead fan who ever lived. (I'm not; there are people who FAR outclass me, but yes, I love this band.)

And it was hard for me to figure out how much I should pay. I know that their cut on each of their previous albums was probably about a pound at most per copy sold, and this time without a record label or physical CD production or anything, they probably have only a small list of people they had to pay. So I could probably have paid 3 pounds and felt perfectly good about it.

But then, I just kinda felt like I owe them, you know?

It got me thinking. What if some malevolent supervillain developed the power to actually _unmake_ side one of OK Computer, to snuff it out of existence? It could never be heard again, and if I tried to remember how any of it went, I'd just draw a blank. How much ransom would I be willing to pay to stop that from happening?

The answer is probably an amount so high it would shock you. After all, it's JUST MONEY. WTF is money, anyway? And what I'd be saving, I just can't put a dollar amount on. I can hardly quantify the value of what they've given me, even in just those six songs, and then when you add in the Bends, and the National Anthem and Talk Show Host and all of that?

So anyway, no cheaping out for me. I went up to like 8 pounds or something like that.

Man, I tell you this: if I'm ever to be executed, let them shoot me through the head while I'm listening to Paranoid Android. Loud. I mean REALLY fucking loud. At the very end, when it all hits maximum intensity -- just kill me right then. I won't even know it. And who knows, maybe my consciousness would just somehow stay trapped for eternity in that moment. Is that what Heaven is?

Interesting point re: ok computer in ransom. Another way to ask the question: if ok computer hadn't been made, and wouldn't be made unless radiohead gains enough support for the current album, how much would you pay for in rainbows?

Of course not everyone worships Radiohead, but I would love to believe that everyone has *some* piece of music that does for them what any of Radiohead's 20 best songs do for me, and don't get me started on Neutral Milk Hotel. Otherwise, how sad.

Well, I was gonna give them a brazillion dollars, but the currency translator they linked to sucked compared to ctrl-K "1 usd in gbp" so... I just bought the super deluxe box vinyl set that hasn't even been made yet and I have no idea how much it cost me cause I didn't bother to check the currency convion :)